Base-ball.



C. S. LINCOLN.

BASE BALL.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 2, 1913.

1,089,714, Patented Mar. 10, 19m

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CLARENCE S. LINCOLN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

BASE-BALL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented llll'ar. 10, 1914.

Application filed .Tune 2, 1913. Serial No. 771,348.

1 '0 alt whom it may concern:

lie it known that I, Cannon on S. LINCOLN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of (look and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful improvement in Base-l3alls, of which the following is a specification.

T he object of my invention is to provide a construction of base-ball which shall tend to prevent the threads of the filamentous wind-- ings contained .in it from being ruptured by repeated batting of the ball, thus to increase the durability of the latter by preventing unevennesses in its outer surface due to soft spots resulting from such ruptured windings, and retain the required resiliency in the structure.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a diametrical section through a base-ball embodying my invention, and Fig. 2 is a broken view of my improved central core.

The central core comprises a resilient spherical body 3 of rubber, or similar material, in a spherical envelop l: of fiber, gutta percha, thin cork, celluloid, or similar flexible and yielding material, with woolen thread 5, or strands of other suitably-resilient material, wound about the core under tension suflicient to produce a compact and durable structure possessing the desired degree of resiliency for use. To hold these windings in the proper spherical contour, I prefer to envelop them in windings of plastic tape or thread, or in a gelatinous substance 6, about which more thread 7 like the thread 5 is wound; and the whole is incased in a flexible stitched cover 8, preferably of horsehide.

My invention is, more particularly, an improvement on known constructions of baseballs, in which the threads are wound about a central core of rubber, or the like, or one of wood, or similar non-yielding material, incased in a resilient; envelop (more usually rubber), upon the theory that resiliency of the structure is largely derived from the action of the inner core, in the one case, or from that of the elastic envelop of the nonyieldiug core, in the other case. The action in both of these structures, however, ound to produce objectionable results. Where the central core is wholly of resilient material, or of non-yielding material enveloped in rubber, or the like, the impact of a bat against the ball, by expanding the resilient core, or the elastic envelop about the nonresilient center, drives it penctratingly between the interstices of the windings to an extent and with a degree of force which ruptures individual threads, and repeated blows with the bat rupture more and more of the threads until, as the result, soft spots are produced in the ball, distorting its spherical contour and impairing its resiliency or rebounding qualities to the extent of destroying its usefulness as a playing ball. hiloreover, it is the fact, as l have ascertained from my n'ofessional use of base-balls of the aforesaid known structures, that they are deficient in the desirable measure of resiliency of which their cores are capable, because of the loss of their resiliency in penetrating between the threads of the windings about them.

The objectionsreferred to are overcome by my improvement in incasing the central resilient body in an envelop of flexible and yielding material, (which is, moreover, impervious to the threads surrounding it), since it can not penetrate between the strands nor be penetrated by them, but serves, by its flexibility, to transmit the resilient action of the central body to the surrounding structure, under impact therewith of a bat, without injury to the threads or loss of resiliency by inell'cctive expansion of the surface of the body in penetrating between them.

The properties of the material for the envelop required to render it useful for its purpose in my improved construction of baseball seem to be that of yielding comparativcly easily to deformation and resistance to easy extensibility. \Vilih an envelop formed of material having these properties, the rubber core can be deformed easily because of the yielding oil the envelop, but such yielding will not be due to stretching or ex lcnsibil ity of the envelop, but to its flexibility, and consequently the deformation of the core will not lend to be so local in character as it would if the envelop stretched easily, but will be more dislrilnited, so that the tendency, referred to, of rupturing lhc wiiulings, is reduced to the minin'uuu.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. A base-ball comprising, in combination, a central core formed of a resilient body in an envelop having the properties of yielding easily to deformation and resistance to easy extensibility, thread'windings about the core, and an outer cover of flexible material.

2. A. baseball con'iprising, in COllllJllltltlUll,

a central core formed of a resilient body in an envelop having the properties or yield ing easily to deformation and resistance to easy extensibility, thread-windings about the core, an envelop of yielding material about said windings, threadavindings about said last-named envelop, and an outer cover of flexible material.

3. A base-ball comprising, in combination, a central core formed of a spherical rubber body in an envelop having the properties of yielding easily to deformation and resistance to easy extensibility, thread-windings about the core, an envelop of gelatinous material about said windings and further windings of 15 thread about the gelatinous envelop, and an outer cover of flexible material.

NELLIE B. DEARBosN, A. C. FISCHER.

Qopiea of this patent may "be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Eatents, Washington, D. G. 

